Colangelo nods, a look of fear in his eyes as he confronts Dave and Valda. "Fine. Whatever you want to know. It's too late to change it anyway..."
Meanwhile, Isagoras comes to the conclusion that that 'summons' was more of a conjuration/teleportation. It's pretty obvious to him now; Arzata has been transported to the elemental plane of fire!
"You can start by outlining just what the hell you did, why you thought that was a good idea, and further explain to me what this damn dagger has to do with any of this." He says, emphasizing the blade by hovering it dangerously close to the man's face. "Bonus points for you if you give advice on cleaning up your damn mess."
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Isagoras seems to close his eyes in concentration, and his lips move as he mumbles some calculations. After a minute of quiet mutterings, he opens his eyes in shock!
"I hast come unto the conclusion that the 'summons' 'twas less so a conventional spell, but alas! more of a conjuration/teleportation. 'Tis now plain unto obvious to me now; Arzata hath been transported to the Elemental Plane of Fire!"
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The WHAT? Pavel shouts at Isagoras, his skin still burning from the fire only moments before he jumped into the water, Elemental plane of fire?!? He turns to the leader of this damned cult that brought this upon him and his new home, What the hell were you people THINKING!?! Not even the damned government and their damned nano-machine demons would have done this! What the point here, what the end game? Burn everthing? Force us into slavery at the hands of fire demons? Speak, damn you! At tell us how to bring it all back!
After all the revelation, Maria finally speaks up.
"If this harms my family or the people I love, not even death will protect you from my wrath." she says to Colangelo.
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Tapping the barrel of the Unreasonably Big Gun into the man's groin, Valda added, "Allow me to condense this. How? Why? And how do we correct it?" Pulling back the hammer, she added, "Answer my riddles three, or without thy nuts shall thee be."
"There's an exchange to me made here. Our Cabal was in contact with the Pharoah, the royal leader of this plane. In exchange for some advanced elemental power, we were to feed the plane; it seems that the elemental plane of fire has to ingest other lands periodically to keep burning. We completed the ritual which required a sacrifice of a great portion of our personal power." As he speaks, Colangelo coughs a little, and blood drips from his lip.
"As for the artifact," he says, turning to Dave, "We were asked to retrieve it by the Fire Pharoah and bring it to him. Seems he either values or fears it. Maybe you should go ask him."
"Maybe I will. Still have that one question, the more important; what the hell can we do to clean up your mess."
"And don't say 'kill the Pharoah of Fire'. Everyone says that." It was also likely to be borderline impossible to actually do.
"Kill the Pharoah? No! No, no no. The pact was with him. If you want to undo the pact that brought us here, you'll have to make a deal with him, one way or another. He can release your land back to Earth at any time. Though," Colangelo says with an evil grin, "I doubt he will. IF you can even get an audience, that is."
"Thanks for being a valuable source of information. As a reward, we get to test the blade said to shatter mountains on you, a small, fleshy, weak willed man." Dave takes the artifact dagger, and proceeds to stab it through Colangelo's chest. It seemed clear enough to him that they'd exausted the man of info, and if he had more to tell, well, Dave was no longer in the mood to hear it. Besides, he was curious to see if the blade would do anything special."If you were going to be alive after this, I'd have highly recommended you to not f@~@ with me again. Maybe you should keep that in mind anyway. Who knows, we might see eachother again one day."
Valda looked up in surprise. "I admit, he was a piece of crap, but was that really the answer?"
"It was an answer."
"Maybe," Valda replied, "But remember - you don't use monsters to fight monsters, because at the end, you still have a monster. We aren't going to win by being like these guys." Raising her gun, Valda knelt and checked the corpse. Maybe he had something useful on him.
"Maybe someone should've told that to my brother." He says, simply. It was odd. Usually when he finished someone off like that- especially someone clearly with evil intent, he could walk away without a thought. But something about Valda's reaction bothered him. He wondered if she was anywhere near as serious as he was about their threats towards the wizard, if she would've actually followed through if he witheld. Dave wouldn't have. Dave wouldn't have stopped untill he bled the information out, or the man bled out himself.
And now, that relevation brought down an odd weight in hks stomach that was never there before.
He removed the artifact, wiping it down using Colangelo's own shirt sleeve.
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But remember - you don't use monsters to fight monsters, because at the end, you still have a monster.
Isagoras commands the wolverines to make sure all the foes are dead, and finishes up just as their duration ends and the four minions fade away. He looks up at Valda, "Pardon, I was just policing the battlefield. Did you say something?"
Despite the question, Isagoras' attention is quickly stolen by their captive's last words. He ponders them to see if he can gain some kind of a direction from them. Perhaps he knows how to find the Pharaoh?
But he seems distracted by the recent turn of events.
Maria says nothing about what Dave did, but you can see that like Valda she's surprised, and maybe a bit distraught too.
"Nothing much, but if you see Dave growing a black beard or muttering about the younglings, give me a yell." Glancing around at the others, Valda added, "So...we're off the see the Pharoh. Anyone see a giant pyramid of fire?" Valda continued to ruffle through pockets.
As Dave sheaths the blade, he is taken by how cold it is, and how his hand has early signs of frost burn from just one use. Feeling a special kinship with the blade, he thinks he could activate the cold in some damaging way against foes in the future.
'Great, the blade is as cold as I am' he thinks to himself rather sarcastically, as he turns to the others in hopes of them having any ideas. He really probably should've let them at least discover where the pyramid was first from the man, but what's done is done. A+~!*#+ deserved it.
It makes sense that it would be relatively close (based on your knowledge/planes).
It is likely a source of greater heat than the surrounding area; if you were to go to the top of a high building you could probably discern at least the direction.
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Isagoras sighs audibly and looks up, scanning the surrounding buildings. "If we could get to a higher vantage point, I discern that we might deduce the position of the aforementioned Pharaoh."
Felling spurred to action, Isagoras starts walking toward the nearest tall building.
But not the hotel they just came from. Too many variables.
Valda nodded, and followed. It seemed as good a plan as any. A giant pyramid that was likely on fire would likely be easy to spot, assuming he lived in a pyramid. Pharaohs hadn't done so in actual Egypt, but no one had likely told this one that.
"You're a wizard. Can't you just, like, cast fly on someone? Or maybe summon something to go scout for us instead of having to spend an hour climbing some stairs?" Dave asks, despite following along.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention the day my tío taught flight." Maria says with a smile.
The Arzata Plaza Office Tower is the highest building in Arzata at 30 stories, and even has a public lounge at the top.
Making your way through streets crowded with concerned civilians, police directing people away from areas of heavy fire, and the ubiquitous fire truck, the heroes find themselves looking out across what should be the New Mexican desert. Sure enough, it looks like a completely foreign land once you get past the immediate Arzata area. There are what appear to be lakes of lava, and creatures of fire roam the plains.
Off to the north past Pueblo Norte is a brighter red glow. Nothing else you can see on the skyline matches it.
Dave takes a moment to survey the hellish horizon, before turning back towards the really bright spot. "Fantastic. I hope someone thought to put something flame retardant on today. You know, Izzy, if we somehow pull this off, that order of yours is gonna have one hell of a time trying to cover this mess up. Even if we don't, I'd love to see how they try to cover up the fact an entire city just disappeared outta nowhere. It's gonna require some serious bullshitting."
"You'd be amazed at how we are able to rationalize things we don't understand. My whole family thought my tío was crazy and so did I, until I went to live with him and he taught me Santería. Now? They all think I'm crazy like him."
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"Eh, they'll claim someone spiked the water, air, etc. Some political asshat will claim that this is why we need to blow up whichever people they're currently trying to vilify, Nazi-style, to rally the crowds. Then people will vote for the asshat, because clearly those people are evil, somehow." Valda shrugged. "Crazy is what people do. Most of the people here will buy it, because obviously an entire city getting teleported to the realm of fire is crazy, and the few that don't will either keep their traps shut or be labelled insane. 'Poor dears, shouldn't have sucked down so much of the crazy gas, I'm glad I'm not like them.' And wait until you see the Health Insurance spike this one will cause. Whoo. Glad I'm not a poor person." Valda certainly didn't have views or anything.
Nodding at the red spot, Valda shrugged. "Who wants to go knocking on hell's oven door?"
Dave pulls out his phone, and turns on the camera. "One thing wrong with that. People have phones. Gods know how many people are reccording this, or being burnt to a crisp. Either or." He pans if around, trying to get as much of the firescape as possible, before putting it away. "You guys know this is probably suicide, right, if we go through with this. Can't say I like the alternative either though. Least I can stab something this way."
Even with the phones, the government will just call it an elaborate hoax... They're quite fond of that, the bastards... Pavel mumbles on, throwing in a couple, "I told you so's" here and there, just look at MK Ultra, or what really goes on in the Russian gulags and the blacksites where they treat with aliens... We'll be called crazy for saying any of this, he hesitates for a moment, chocking on the words before continuing, if we survive this that is. Though it's the right thing to do, suicide or not. These people may be sheep to uncaring government, but they deserve to deal with that and be awoken to that reality, they don't deserve this.
"Yeah yeah." Dave slaps Pavel on the back, "Let's go be Big Damn Heroes."
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Isagoras had been saving his breath and allowing his rich mind to process the recent events, but only now did he feel confident enough to render voice. "Just as you, Dave, can not sprint for 48 hours, so too can I not rend asunder the laws of physics for all the live-ling day. I had spent the lion's share of my power to defeat the gargantuan fire creature, and now have little more than the most basic spells to give aid.
Should we have need of winged scouts, my ubiquitous eagles will of course be available, but to enchant creatures with the power of flight is beyond my capacity anon.
For the now, 'twould appear we have some fortuitous proximity to the Plane of Earth, for, did we apparate in the heart of the Plane of Fire, we would already be consumed in lakes of fire and unbreathable air. But here at least the fire plays upon some land, so our deaths are only mostly assured.
Well, 'tis naught for it. We can either set out now, or take rest and set out later. The choice is thine."
Exactly who he's referring to isn't exactly clear sine he was facing away from the party the entire time.
"Speak for yourself. I'm known to possess some monstrous stamina. We should get moving, sitting around here isn't gonna do us any favours. Not when the entire city is being set ablaze."
There most certainly will be native fire plane creatures coming into town on their own at some point. As yet, aside from those at the beach, you haven't seen any in town.
"We should get moving, sitting around here isn't gonna do us any favours. Not when the entire city is being set ablaze."
Are you setting out on foot, or would you like to take your vehicles, or acquire some more suited to the hostile environment perhaps?
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Fortunately, it being a desert, the city has no shortage of fire trucks. After a couple hours, you find one that was retired in the early 80s and is now sitting outside a park in Mesa Rojo. There are no keys, but anyone with Disable Device could hotwire it pretty easily.
Dave quickly gets to work on hotwiring the relic.
Dave gets the thing running long enough to get it to a filling station, and then you're on your way.
I'll need Fortitude Saves from everyone, DC 15, to avoid effects of severe heat. You CAN use your AP to soak resultant nonlethal damage if you choose.
Dave's cool attitude is so well established, that it permeates his very being and protects him from the intense heat. Not even a single bead of sweat appears on his forehead as he drives the team towards the pyramid of fire.
Valda suffered through the heat with clenched teeth and loud complaining. This was what you got for wearing leather armour in the planes of fire...
Maria suffers from the heat, even though she's not wearing much clothes in the first place, always playing up the gypsy belly dancer look.